The effects of IMF programs on poverty, income inequality and social expenditure in low income countries: an empirical analysis

Graham Bird, Faryal Qayum and Dane Rowlands

Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 2021, vol. 24, issue 2, 170-188

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of IMF programs on poverty, income inequality and government expenditure on education and health. It distinguishes between non-concessional and concessional programs and examines the effect of contingent factors; program completion, IMF resources, the size of the initial economic problems and aid dependency. Our findings suggest that, in general, IMF programs have not significantly increased poverty and income inequality; in some instances they are associated with reduced poverty and income inequality. Moreover, we find little evidence that IMF programs lead to severe cuts in social expenditure.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17487870.2019.1689360 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jpolrf:v:24:y:2021:i:2:p:170-188

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/GPRE19

DOI: 10.1080/17487870.2019.1689360

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Policy Reform is currently edited by Dr Judith Clifton

More articles in Journal of Economic Policy Reform from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().